Shaun White’s quest for a third Olympic gold medal in snowboarding’s halfpipe ended with him sitting on a pad at the bottom of the course, waiting for a score he knew would never come. He had tried to sell the final run of the 12-man final, tried to pump his fist after wobbling on two landings, tried to look excited, tried to look triumphant. But he knew. Everyone knew.

The score was posted.

Iouri Podladtchikov, the Russian-born Swiss rider, was first despite barely escaping afternoon qualifying. Two Japanese teens, 15-year-old Ayumu Hirano and 18-year-old Taku Hiraoka, were second and third.

For him, and for his country. It was the first time the United States failed to win a medal in men’s halfpipe. Since it was added to the Olympic program in 1998, Americans had won eight of a possible 12 medals and seven of the last nine.

“We let America down,” said Danny Davis, who was the next highest American in 10th. “Sorry, America.”

The Sochi Games are quickly becoming the Sorry Games for America’s biggest names. Speed skater Apolo Ohno retired, and alpine skier Lindsey Vonn and figure skater Evan Lysacek got hurt and never made it here. Then Bode Miller finished eighth in the downhill after having the fastest time in two of three practice runs.

Now, maybe the biggest lock of the Games pulls out of the slopestyle event and can’t land a clean run in the halfpipe final.

“It’s a bummer,” White said two hours later, after initially blowing past dozens of frigid reporters waiting in the snow to talk to him. “I had a plan. I had a specific run I wanted to land. I didn’t get to put that down. That’s the most frustrating thing for me. You know, if I did my run and I got beat, I’m OK with that. But I didn’t get that chance tonight.”

White posted the day’s best score, a 95.75 on his first run of the qualifying round that advanced him directly to the final.

But you start over in the final. You get two more runs, and your best score counts.

White’s plan was the same as 2006 and 2010: Post the best qualifying score. Get the last spot in the final. Rip off a prodigious first run. Clinch gold before the second. Try something outrageous with all the pressure off.

Worked in Turin and Vancouver. Didn’t work on a slushy pipe in the Western Caucasus mountains.

The kid from Carlsbad crashed twice in his first run – once in the slushy bottom of the pipe, once on its lip – and scored a 35.00, putting him in 11th place.

Then Podladtchikov posted a 94.75 in his second run. Davis and both Japanese boarders couldn’t top it, leaving only the final run from White.

It couldn’t have been set up any better.

It couldn’t have been any more disappointing.

White’s first “hit” on the pipe wasn’t as big as in his first run, and he stumbled again on the landing of his third trick. That cost him speed and ended any hope that he might attempt the elusive triple cork he had been secretly practicing for months. He also bobbled his final landing, and his score of 90.25 seemed generous.

“Fourth (place),” Davis said, “was a gift.”

“My dream scenario,” White said, “was I was going to land that first run and then have the opportunity to maybe do something that has never been done before, the triple cork or something like that … But I didn’t really get to break out everything, which is really frustrating. The tricks are still in my pocket.”

That I-Pod, as Podladtchikov is known, even was in the final took some doing. He crashed in his first run of qualifying, receiving a score of 15. He got an 82 in his second run, but that meant he had to sweat out the semifinals while the other contenders watched.

“The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my whole life, the gnarliest,” Podladtchikov said of his make-or-break qualifying run. “But when I managed that, it was like, ‘Oh my god.’ Then everything felt awesome. From then on, every single run I was building up a little bit more. I started really, really low and ended at the highest point possible.”

In the final, Podladtchikov executed his signature YOLO flip – two head-over-heels flips while spinning four times. He first landed it last March, only for White to quickly master it and add it to his repertoire.

“When I saw videos of Shaun doing it really well, I felt kind of bummed,” said Podladtchikov, who is good friends with him. “I thought, ‘Damn, this is my trick and he’s already doing it better than me.’ Today I guess I was doing it a little bit better.”

The most impressive part wasn’t that he landed the YOLO flip but that he landed it in this pipe, where conditions were so bad earlier in the week that some riders suggested postponing the event. It was improved Tuesday but still inconsistent enough that one rider after another struggled to hold landings in what amounted to a bowl of sugar.

“To be honest, I woke up this morning not even knowing if I would be able to land one run,” White said. “I had a tough time, but everybody was riding in the same conditions. Everybody was in the same boat.”

Same conditions, different expectations. Who else had an hour-long documentary air in prime time on NBC last month called, “Shaun White: Russia Calling”?

“I think Shaun was feeling a lot of pressure,” said Hiraoka, the bronze medalist. “I think it was a bit of a psychological issue.”

Indeed, White looked and sounded like a guy who needs to get away.

“I know where I need to go from here … and that’s on tour with the band,” he said. “I need a little break from snowboarding for a while. I’m hoping to go play some music with my friends and go on tour.”